President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has placed national security at the heart of Nigeria’s 2026 fiscal plan, earmarking ₦5.41 trillion for defence and security, the largest single allocation in the proposed ₦58.18 trillion federal budget.
The proposal, unveiled on Friday, December 19, 2025, during the presentation of the 2026 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly, marks the third consecutive year that security spending has topped sectoral allocations under the Tinubu administration.
Addressing lawmakers, the President declared that security remained the bedrock of economic growth, social stability and investor confidence, insisting that development efforts would falter without peace and order.
He said, “Security remains the foundation of development. Without peace and stability, other sectors of the economy cannot thrive.”
Under the 2026 proposal, defence and security spending surpasses allocations to infrastructure, education and health, reinforcing a trend established in the 2024 and 2025 budgets.
The sustained priority reflects ongoing challenges posed by terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and other forms of violent crime across the country.
While security takes the lead, the budget also proposes ₦3.56 trillion for infrastructure, ₦3.52 trillion for education and ₦2.48 trillion for health.
Tinubu acknowledged mounting fiscal pressures but argued that the scale of security threats left the government with little choice.
“Without security, investment will not flourish. Without educated and healthy citizens, productivity will remain low. And without infrastructure, jobs and enterprise cannot scale,” he said.
The President pledged that increased security spending would be matched with stricter accountability, warning that funding must translate into tangible improvements on the ground.
“We will invest in security with clear accountability for outcomes, because security spending must deliver security results,” he told the lawmakers.
He also announced a sweeping overhaul of Nigeria’s national security architecture, including the adoption of a new national counter-terrorism doctrine built around unified command, improved intelligence coordination and stronger community-based stability mechanisms.
As part of the reset, Tinubu declared that all armed groups operating outside state authority, including bandits, kidnappers, militias, armed gangs, and violent cult groups, would now be officially designated as terrorists.
The classification will also extend to their financiers, informants and political or community enablers.
According to the President, the tougher stance is aimed at closing legal and operational loopholes that have allowed violent groups to operate with relative impunity for years.
The budget proposal followed the approval of the 2026 budget framework by the Federal Executive Council at an emergency meeting earlier on Friday.
The meeting was presided over for the first time by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The council pegged total expenditure at ₦58.47 trillion, citing heavy obligations from debt servicing, public sector wages and security commitments as major drivers of spending.
Despite the strain on public finances, Tinubu urged lawmakers to back the budget, describing it as a consolidation of recent economic reforms and a critical step toward restoring public confidence in the government’s ability to protect lives and property.
He argued that a secure environment was indispensable to sustaining economic recovery and unlocking Nigeria’s long-term development potential.
